American History Ex
by LeggoMyMeggo92
Summary: Jenny had been the only kid on her block until the Vinyards moved in. This is the story of how she came to love, then hate Derek Vinyard, her best friend. Language, slight violence, Derek/OC eventually. Reviews accepted graciously, NO flames.


"Jenny? It's Dr. Sweeney, from Venice Beach High?" his voice rang through the phone that had awoken her at a very rude hour.

"Oh yeah, hi Dr. Sweeney. Why are you calling me, I graduated what, four years ago?" she asked as she turned around her alarm clock. The bright red digital numbers read 5:53. She groaned inwardly.

"Derek asked me to call you and tell you what happened."

"You can tell that asshole that I don't ca-" She felt all of her old anger ready to burst out of the cage she had shut it in that day at Chino. The day she said goodbye to her best friend forever.

"He says he's done with it. All of it. He wants to see you, Jenny. He needs you."

She sighed, letting her head drop back onto the pillow. "I'll be there soon as I can."

And the line went dead.

* * *

_Fifteen Years Ago_

Jenny Madison had been the only kid on the block until the Vinyards moved in next door. Too bad for her, though, that the only child her age was a boy. Derek. He tormented her for a whole year after he moved in. He would pull her pigtails and push her into puddles at the bus stop. He would steal her Oreos and tie her shoe laces together. He was a jerk, and for that first year Jenny hated his guts.

That all changed when he stood up to the biggest, meanest, and toughest kid in third grade. Seth Ryan. He had just pushed her off the swing that went the highest and Derek punched him in the nose. That day, on the ride home, Derek sat next to her and she let him.

They had been inseparable ever since.

_July 19, Summer Before Freshman Year_

Jenny sat in the living room, clutching the note in one hand, the phone in the other. She didn't know what to do. She wanted to call her father, but she didn't want to disturb him at work. She wanted to call her mother but…

'_My Darling Jenny,_

_I love you with all my heart and soul, but this environment is stifling me. I need to get away and start over. So, I have taken $10,000 and Juan (our gardner) to LAX. From there I'll be flying to who-knows-where and far away from Venice Beach. I love you, and I just hope that one day you'll understand. _

_Love, _

_Mommy'_

She stared blankly ahead for what seemed like forever before Derek let himself in. He saw her on the couch and knew that something was horribly wrong.

"Jenny? What's up?" he asked, walking over and sitting down next to her. He saw the fluorescent orange paper in her hand and wrestled it away from her. After he read it he hugged her and she desperately clung to him, large sobs erupting out of her.

Derek didn't leave her side for the next five days.

* * *

Jenny checked in at the Chino visitor's desk and was told to go sit. It was 8 AM on a Tuesday, and the only other person in the waiting room was a plastic-looking woman with dyed red hair and long red nails that Jenny thought she should have to take off before going in to see whoever it was she was here for.

"Jennifer Madison?" the guard called. Jenny got up and followed him, swallowing the cold lump of Memory that had risen from the depths of her stomach.

"He's in the infirmary, so you'll talk to him face-to-face, is that okay?" The guard said as more of a statement than a question over his shoulder as they passed the room with the glass dividers and telephones. The place where she had told off Derek less than a week after he went in.

The infirmary looked like a World War 2 hospital, no individual rooms, just cloth dividers between each bed and stark white sheets on each one. The only difference was that there were bars surrounding the group of beds. The guard nodded to the old man (the doctor, she guessed) who let her in.

She took a couple steps in, knees feeling like Jell-o in an earthquake. She saw his feet first, and realized what had happened. She approached him quietly and put a gentle hand on his shoulder. He looked up at her with sad eyes.

"You came?" he asked, not believing she was there. His once shiny bald head was sprouting hair, maybe a quarter of an inch. His tattoos still glared up at her angrily, threatening her all by themselves. The fact that they were splayed out on taut skin over well-developed muscles only added to their frightening appearance.

"Yeah. Dr. Sweeney called me. He said you were done. Is that true?" she asked in return.

"Yes. I'm done."

Those words were the sweetest music that her ears had ever heard. She sat on the bed next to him, still touching his shoulder. She soon replaced it with her forehead, her exhales hitting Derek's bare shoulder blade, which gave him chills in the best way.

"I missed you, Derek." She whispered.

"I missed you too, Jenny."

* * *

_October of Senior Year_

Jenny and Derek were passing notes about their plans for the weekend in Dr. Sweeney's class when the principal walked in, asking for Derek. Instinctively, Jenny knew something was wrong. This instinct proved right when she was Derek crumple to his knees in tears out in the hallway. She burst out of her seat.

"Miss Madison!" Dr. Sweeney exclaimed, but she was already kneeling next to Derek, holding him as his hot tears wet her t-shirt.

They were both excused and Jenny drove them home. They sat in her driveway and she killed the engine. Derek was silent, staring at his house. The tears had stopped, but he looked depressed nonetheless.

"My dad is dead." He said as a confirmation to himself. Jenny put her hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged it off, grabbing his backpack from the backseat and getting out of the car, leaving her all alone.

She knew, right then and there that it was the beginning of the end of her friendship with Derek Vinyard.


End file.
